


Holding Your Hands

by HogwartsToAlexandria



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Communication, Established Relationship, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, Fluff, Kissing, M/M, Nervousness, relationship announcement
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:42:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25264810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HogwartsToAlexandria/pseuds/HogwartsToAlexandria
Summary: Some nerves appear when the big day of revealing their relationship to their friends come.
Relationships: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin/Severus Snape
Comments: 8
Kudos: 86
Collections: HP Triad!Fest Presents: Poly!Mini Fest





	Holding Your Hands

**Author's Note:**

  * For [iRavenish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/iRavenish/gifts).



> Hey! Your prompt spoke to the softness I have for these three so I hope you enjoy the mindless fluff 😊💕 Thank you to my dear friend Betheflame for the beta, and to our mods for bringing this fest to us!

"Where is he?" Sirius asked as he made it back from the buffet, hands full with two plates overflowing from the snacks and mini-pies littering the sides of the Great Hall for this year's Yule Ball. 

Remus looked around, startled out of his staring into his glass of fizzy water - he couldn't wait for James' remarks on how fun he was at parties. 

"I don't know," he admitted once he'd made a quick sweep of the most likely places he could find their third and got back to gazing at Sirius' pinched look. 

"Well, looking is what we're doing." Sirius nodded to himself. Remus wanted to keep the determined look that settled on his face, which he knew to read as concern, in his mind forever, like a photograph. 

"You check the trophy hall and kitchens and I'll check the bathrooms?" 

Sirius hummed, putting down the plated he'd so carefully piled full without a lookback. 

"Touch the coin if you find him," he whispered, kissing Remus' cheek before he was gone. 

Remus was thankful the others hadn't yet come down from the common room - something about Lily's dress and Peter's bowtie, to be certain - it gave them a headstart to try and find Severus, to once again embark on the impossible mission of reassuring the other boy enough that he'd let them announce their relationship to their closest friends. Friends that were Severus' as much as Sirius' or his nowadays, however long that took. It made Remus smile just thinking of all the ways everything had improved when everyone had had time to sit down and think on the real reasons they supposedly hated each other so much. 

Thank God for McGonagall and her detentions. Even if she probably hadn't anticipated that three out of five of her worst troublemakers would settle matters by way of smooching each other senseless in the hallway outside her office. Fun times. 

Remus finally put down his glass and left the Great Hall in the direction of the bathrooms. 

The boy ones were empty at first glance and Remus looked under the doors quickly for any feet that would attach to his boyfriend's body just to be sure. He walked a little more quickly than he'd done before to cross the hallway and discreetly peek into the girls' bathroom, but they were - cliché, he knew, but still proven right in this case - packed, there was no way Severus was in there. 

He sighed, looking into the empty hallway, wracking his brains for ideas. He was pretty sure the Slytherin common room would be just as much of a mess as the Gryffindor door one presently was so that was ruled out as well. Even then, the castle was large, filled with secret passages Remus only knew because Severus had shown them to him - Merlin knew how many more the boy had discovered and kept to himself. 

"Oi!" Someone bumped into Remus, jolting him out of the way. 

"Sorry mate!" The guy, a fifth year Remus recognized from his tutoring sessions at the library barely even turned around.

Remus huffed in annoyance, but only long enough to refocus his gaze and find himself staring at the half open front doors of the castle. 

The grounds. The grounds were a good idea. 

The enchanted coin they used to pass each other covert messages was still dead cold in his pocket, so Remus kept his brisk rhythm as he walked out the doors. The wind was nice after the heat of the Great Hall, but the absence of light save for that which the large windows cast outside would have been tricky had he not been able to count on his heightened senses - another of Sirius' routine of the glass half full: not all was bad about being a werewolf. 

In this case, Remus grinned even before he'd rounded the old sequoia past the main grounds. He knew before he saw or even heard him that Severus was here. He put his hand in his pocket to thumb at the coin and warn Sirius before he forgot, and stalled a few meters away from where Severus was pacing a hole in the ground, robes flying around him and hair astray from being pulled on, probably. 

"Hello," Remus whispered, hoping he wouldn't startle the other boy. 

Severus did not startle, and he didn't look surprised to see him there either. 

"I wasn't exactly hiding," Severus answered his silent question, and Remus stifled a laugh, passing a hand in his own hair. 

"No?" He asked, getting marginally closer. 

Severus squinted at him. 

"Because that would be perfectly understandable. If you were hiding I mean," Remus spoke softly, taking careful step after careful step towards his boyfriend, his heart full once he was close enough to see the gentle flush of cold in the boy's cheeks, dark eyes staring right at his face. "There's a lot of people in there, and our friends are boisterous and loud on their best behavior, so I, and Sirius, would find it perfectly normal if maybe, you were nervous?" 

His half-asked question hung in the air while Severus studied Remus' face, and Remus let him. No matter all the progress they'd made over the months and even years now, he would never blame Severus for the fact that his first instinct was always to look for mockery where there was none. He just gave him the time and space he needed - Sirius tried his best to do so, too, although space was sometimes harder for him to give. 

"Don't baby me, Lupin," Severus snapped after a while, but his voice severely lacked bite. 

"Don't ‘Lupin’ me, love," Remus answered, and finally allowed himself to brush his knuckles down Severus' arm before closing his hand around his fingers. 

The nickname made Severus' eye twitch, like it always did, and Remus wondered, like he often did, if he were a different bloke, if crushing Severus into a hug in those moments would work as well. But being himself, he just squeezed the boy's fingers, and smiled at him. 

"I'm scared too," he told him. 

"Why?" Severus asked. 

"Because James is an arsehole, and Marlene will have a thousand uncomfortable questions," Sirius' voice reached them, louder than either of their had been throughout this. 

They both turned around to watch him walk to them, and Remus moved to the side a bit when, as expected, Sirius decided against space and in favor of cupping Severus with both his hands to kiss him. 

It was slow and gentle, and one of Remus' favourite things to see in this wide world, and it worked too. By the time they parted, Severus' cheeks were truly pink and Sirius grinned at him before kissing his cheek and stepping slightly back, only enough to get around Remus' back and circle his waist with his arms. 

"We talked about this," Sirius reminded them both from where he'd put his chin on Remus' shoulder, reaching for Severus' free hand. 

"I know," Severus sighed. "I just…" 

"Come here, Sev," Remus tugged on the man's hand gently, biting his lip at the renewed intensity of Severus' eyes staring into his own again. "Hugs are always good, hm?" 

The man snorted at him, and Sirius laughed frankly, even if he pushed his face into Remus' neck as he did so, but then he had both his boyfriends surrounding him, and Remus focused on closing his arms around Severus' body and burying his own face in the boy's neck. This was what they did best, connecting and reconnecting with what mattered. 

"We also don't have to do this if you're not ready," Remus reminded him, murmuring in his hair. 

"No," Severus pulled away just enough to look into both their faces, "I want to, I do." 

"Oh you gotta be kidding me," 

Severus' eyes went as wide as Remus thought his own must have, even Sirius swiftly startled off his back. They all turned around, Remus' hand reflexively finding Severus' and holding on as they came to see the little party of their friends gathered next to the tree, watching them with varying expressions of surprise or smugness. 

Lily and Marlene looked very smug indeed, arms crossed and forehead-bumping each other while smirking at the three of them. James hadn't closed his mouth since his exclamation had surprised them all, and Peter, well Peter was just smiling at them and giving them goofy little thumbs-up.

Sirius was the first to step towards their friends, a hand outstretched like he was guarding them. Looking back, it would probably be funny that he'd looked like he was trying to reach a wild animal while defending Remus and Severus from it. For now though, Remus just glanced at Severus' face, noticing how much he'd blanched, and hoped their friend wouldn't be an arse for real. 

"James?" Sirius asked, "We were planning on telling you all a little differently than that, but…" 

James squeaked a little dangerously, then rubbed his face under his glasses with a hiss for the girls, who were now laughing. 

"Will you say something, mate?" Sirius asked. Remus didn't like the worried tone of his voice, he knew Sirius had stressed over James' reaction especially, these two had so much history, it would kill him to lose James over who he chose to love - if choosing was even the right word. 

"Did you have to do this tonight?!" James eventually huffed, and the anger in his voice didn't line up with the words, at all. Remus frowned. 

"Look at Lily," Severus whispered. 

And for some reason, Lily was pulling out her wallet from her tiny pearl purse, grinning from ear-to-ear. 

"Pay up, Potter!" She hollered, laughter still lacing her voice. 

"I bet for tomorrow morning, after the party, when tonight proved too hard, you'd tell us, fi-bloody-nally!" James protested again. 

Remus felt Severus' shoulders sag at the same time as his own did, and Sirius' back visibly relaxed in front of them.

"You bet on us?" Sirius asked. Remus hid his smile in Severus' shoulder at how relieved he sounded. 

"Of course I did! You idiots have been more obvious than I was with Lily!" 

"I have trouble believing that is even within the realm of possibility," Severus muttered next to him, and Remus laughed. 

"Padfoot," he whispered, just loud enough that the man glanced back around and he could make a come hither motion of his hand for him to join them again. 

"I knew it'd go just fine," Sirius would huff later, when they were back inside the Great Hall, sitting around one of the small tables. 

"Trying too hard, Black," Severus smirked at him, but his eyes hadn't stopped looking as relieved as all three of them actually were, and when Remus couldn't help himself and reached for their hands again, both his boyfriends went for it, and all was well. 

Mischief Managed, and all that. He was happy…  _ they _ were happy. 


End file.
